Name: Grief Without a Death: Helping Children Mourn the Loss of Family While Family Still Exists - 1 CE hour
Start: 2026-07-14T10:10:00-0500
End: 2026-07-14T11:05:00-0500

Grief Without a Death: Helping Children Mourn the Loss of Family While Family Still Exists - 1 CE hour

Tuesday July 14, 2026 10:10am - 11:05am CDT

301 A

Objectives:

Identify and clinically distinguish ambiguous loss in child welfare placement from traditional grief frameworks, recognizing how the physical presence but functional absence of caregivers creates a unique and often unrecognized grief experience in children and adolescents.
Identify at least three behavioral or emotional indicators of placement-related grief in children and adolescents.
Implement at least two trauma-informed interventions that support grief expression in short-term shelter or crisis-care environments.

Abstract:
When a child is removed from their home and placed into emergency shelter care, they experience profound loss — of family/support systems, routine, pets, community, and identity — yet receive little cultural or institutional permission to grieve. Unlike bereavement following death, this form of loss exists in a relational limbo: caregivers are alive but inaccessible, home exists but is no longer available, and family continues but in a fractured and uncertain form. Pauline Boss's foundational construct of ambiguous loss provides a critical lens through which placement grief can be understood, named, and therapeutically addressed. This presentation draws from grief theory, attachment theory, and trauma-informed practice to equip emergency shelter counselors and child welfare clinicians with a conceptual framework and practical intervention strategies for helping children and adolescents mourn losses that the systems around them often minimize or fail to recognize altogether. Attendees will leave with both a clinical vocabulary and an actionable practice toolkit for honoring grief that has no funeral.

NCTRC Approved

Speakers

Mary T. Martinez-Gonzalez, M.Ed., MA, LPC

St. PJ’s Children’s Home

Mary Martinez-Gonzalez is a Clinical Mental Health Counselor with extensive experience providing services across the lifespan, from early childhood through older adulthood. She holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and a Master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. She... Read More →

Tuesday July 14, 2026 10:10am - 11:05am CDT
301 A

Breakout session

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Claritycon2026

Mary T. Martinez-Gonzalez, M.Ed., MA, LPC

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Claritycon2026

Mary T. Martinez-Gonzalez, M.Ed., MA, LPC

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